British GP - Ferrari Owners' Club

17.6.06

First, I'd like to say thanks to Tony Cotton for covering for me whilst I was away at Monaco, the Formula One Paddock Club is a fantastic place to be, but not if you're actually trying to follow the racing!

I was so relaxed for most of the weekend that I was only vaguely aware that some kind of controversy was going on regarding Schuey and Qualifying, but happily most of it passed me by. It already shows all the signs of being just another storm in a tea cup. Would he have got away without criticism as Alonso did if he'd he backed the grid up so severely following the Safety Car period at Silverstone?

I was back on duty in the right place to cover the British GP - in front of the telly, it must have been awful in the baking heat at Silverstone! This report won't take long as it was a dull race and there isn't really much to say, although the minutiae which determined the result are fascinating.

His home GP was a total disaster for Jenson Button, he fell at the first fence in Qualifying because the Honda team did not allow enough time for him to set a decent time and an engine oil leak caused him to spin into retirement in the race, though he did show some aggression in working his way through the lower orders. What a let-down for the legions of Button fans flying their St. George's flags (made in China) on their foreign cars - at least JB's employer employs a lot of other English people both directly and indirectly!

Talking of British drivers, I wish Coulthud would just go away. We've had to put up with his under-achieving and moaning for years and his latest "Crazy Dave" incarnation is more irritating than ever, especially as he's now all loved-up. In fact, I suspect it would be a lot better if most of the drivers went away. What makes most of them worth their huge salaries e.g. what has Montoya ever done to earn that yacht? Also, if the driver is generally of so little relative importance compared to the car, then why pay them so much money? F1 would be better if most of the drivers were replaced by young drivers selected on the basis of talent. Pick them up early and pay their way through to F1, as McLaren have done with current GP2 star Lewis Hamilton. This would make the sport much more interesting and exciting by making graduation to F1 much more merit-based and we wouldn't have the same old faces hanging around for ever, getting super rich whilst achieving very little.

The whole weekend was dominated by the three drivers in F1 who do make a difference, with the one with the best package winning. Fernando Alonso and Renault qualified first and cruised to an easy race win. He took pole in the dying seconds of qualifying from Schuey, who was then demoted to third by Raikkonen. Massa was fourth. TV coverage of qualifying was again poor with confusing close-ups and cuts, and commentary and pictures having different subjects. Surely this is an opportunity for replays.

The race was uninteresting with the order quickly settling down to Alonso - Raikkonen- Schumacher. Schuey stopped first, Raikkonen on the next lap and Alonso put in three blinding laps to extend his lead. So the Ferrari probably went to the grid with least fuel - bad news. Sure enough the Fazza stopped first first for the second stops, followed on the next lap by Raikkonen, meanwhile Michael was scorching round the track and leapfrogged the Finn! The full genius of the move did not emerge until later in the week. Ferrari stopped Schuey a lap early, Ross Brawn did not tell the pit crew until the last possible second so it would be too late for McLaren to stop Raikkonen. Schuey set blisteringly fast in and out laps - the latter with full tanks remember and it also seems likely that he was sandbagging immediately prior to his stop to lull the Grey Empire into a false sense of security. Brilliantly clever stuff, but one in-lap and one out-lap are not much entertainment for a GP.

Alonso was able to cruise to such an extent he was changing up before the shift lights came on! MS was second, his face showing his disappointment and frustration. Raikkonen was third, Fisichella fourth, Massa fifth and Montoya sixth. Heidfeld and Villeneuve taking the last two points scoring places for BMW Sauber, four marques taking all the points. It looks like BMW resources are helping that team to realise its full potential. However the performance of the big-spending Japanese teams showed that money is not enough.

Alonso and Renault look set to take both titles again - how can they have let him go? Ferrari have vowed to fight them all the way. Meanwhile we await Schuey's decision on his future with bated breath...